Whenever possible, merge pull requests automatically via the pull request manager on GitHub. Merging should only be done manually if there is a really good reason to do this!

Make sure that pull requests do not contain a messy history with merges, etc. If this is the case, then follow the manual instructions, and make sure the fork is rebased to tidy the history before committing.

If there are a longer series of related commits, consider a merge instead:

git fetch upstream-rw
git merge --no-ff upstream-rw/master

The merge will be detected by github, and should close any related pull
requests automatically.

Note the --no-ff above. This forces git to make a merge commit, rather
than doing a fast-forward, so that these set of commits branch off trunk then
rejoin the main history with a merge, rather than appearing to have been made
directly on top of trunk.

Now, in either case, you should check that the history is sensible and you
have the right commits:

git log --oneline --graph
git log -p upstream-rw/master..

The first line above just shows the history in a compact way, with a text
representation of the history graph. The second line shows the log of commits
excluding those that can be reached from trunk (upstream-rw/master), and
including those that can be reached from current HEAD (implied with the ..
at the end). So, it shows the commits unique to this branch compared to trunk.
The -p option shows the diff for these commits in patch form.

Only the following criteria should result in an issue being closed without a milestone:

Not actually an issue (user error, etc.)

Duplicate of an existing issue

A pull request superseded by a new pull request providing an alternate implementation

Open issues should only lack a milestone if:

More clarification is required

Which milestone it belongs in requires some discussion

Corollary: When an issue is closed without a milestone that means that the issue will not be fixed, or that it was
not a real issue at all.

In general there should be the following open milestones:

The next bug fix releases for any still-supported version lines; for example if 0.4 is in development and
0.2.x and 0.3.x are still supported there should be milestones for the next 0.2.x and 0.3.x releases.

The next X.Y release, i.e. the next minor release; this is generally the next release that all development in
master is aimed toward.

The next X.Y release +1; for example if 0.3 is the next release, there should also be a milestone for 0.4 for
issues that are important, but that we know won’t be resolved in the next release.

Future–this is for all issues that require attention at some point but for which no immediate solution is in
sight.

Bug fix release milestones should only be used for deferring issues that won’t be fixed in the next minor release,
or for issues is previous releases that no longer apply to the mainline.

When in doubt about which milestone to use for an issue, use the next minor release–it can always be moved once
it’s been more closely reviewed prior to release.

Active milestones associated with a specific release (eg. v0.3.0) should contain at least one issue with the
release label representing the actual task for releasing that version (this also works around the GitHub annoyance
that milestones without any open issues are automatically closed).

Issues that require fixing in the mainline, but that also are confirmed to apply to supported stable version lines
should be marked with one or more 'backport-*' labels for each v0.X.Y branch that has the issue.

In some cases it may require extra work beyond a simple merge to port bug fixes to older lines of development; if
such additional work is required it is not a bad idea to open a “Backport #nnn to v0.X.Y” issue in the appropriate
v0.X.Y milestone.

The Astropy “changelog” is kept in the file CHANGES.rst at the root of the
repository. As the filename extension suggests this is a reStructured Text
file. The purpose of this file is to give a technical, but still user (and
developer) oriented overview of what changes were made to Astropy between each
public release. The idea is that it’s a little more to the point and easier to
follow than trying to read through full git log. It lists all new features
added between versions, so that a user can easily find out from reading the
changelog when a feature was added. Likewise it lists any features or APIs
that were changed (and how they were changed) or removed. It also lists all
bug fixes. Affiliated packages are encouraged to maintain a similar changelog.

There are two approaches one may take to adding a new entry to the changelog,
each with certain pros and cons. Before describing the two specific approaches
it should be said that all additions to the changelog should be made first
in the ‘master’ branch. This is because every release of Astropy includes a
copy of the changelog, and it should list all the changes in every prior
version of Astropy. For example, when Astropy v0.3.0 is released, in addition
to the changes new to that version the changelog should have all the changes
from every v0.2.x version (and earlier) released up to that point.

Two approaches for including a changelog entry for a new feature or bug fix
are:

Include the changelog update in the same pull request as the change. That
is, assuming this change is being made in a pull request it can include an
accurate changelog update along with it.

Pro: An addition to the changelog is just like any other documentation
update, and should be part of any atomic change to the software. It can
be pulled into master along with the rest of the change.

Con: If many pull requests also include changelog updates, they can quickly
conflict with each other and require rebasing. This is not difficult to
resolve if the only conflict is in the changelog, but it can still be trouble
especially for new contributors.

Add to the changelog after a change has been merged to master, whether by
pull request or otherwise.

Pro: Largely escapes the merge conflict issue.

Cons: Isn’t included “atomically” in the merge commit, making it more
difficult to keep track of for backporting. Requires new contributors to
either make a second pull request or have a developer with push access to the
main repository make the commit.

The first approach is probably preferable, especially for core contributors.
But the latter approach is acceptable as well.

The exact formatting of the changelog content is a bit loose for now (though
it might become stricter if we want to develop more tools around the
changelog). The format can be mostly inferred by looking at previous versions.
Each release gets its own heading (using the - heading marker) with the
version and release date. Releases still under development have
(unreleased) as there is no release date yet.

There are generally up to three subheadings (using the ^ marker): “New
Features”, “API Changes”, “Bug Fixes”, and “Other Changes and Additions”. The
latter is mostly a catch-all for miscellaneous changes, though there’s no
reason not to make up additional sub-headings if it seems appropriate.

Under each sub-heading, changes are typically grouped according to which
sub-package they pertain to. Changes that apply to more than one sub-package
or that only apply to support modules like logging or utils may go
under a “Misc” group.

The actual texts of the changelog entries are typically just one to three
sentences–they should be easy to glance over. Most entries end with a
reference to an issue/pull request number in square brackets.

A single changelog entry may also reference multiple small changes. For
example: